


Read All About It.

by MagicandMess (magicandmess)



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Politics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-07
Updated: 2012-08-07
Packaged: 2017-11-11 16:09:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/480366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicandmess/pseuds/MagicandMess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Prime Minister of Britain wakes to the news that his younger brother is gay, as does the rest of Britain, leaving Robert wondering just how this will affect his job and leaving his brother’s boyfriend wondering how Renly could be related to such a cold man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Read All About It.

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally going to be a political, modern AU fanfiction but I decided to cut it here. Any views or opinions hinted at by either Stannis or Robert within the one shot are not those of my own and no offense is meant.

“Tell me it’s not true,” the gruff voice on the other line was not what Renly had expected upon waking to a ringing phone and the youngest of the Baratheon brothers rubs his sleep-filled eyes with one hand, using his other to check the caller ID.

“Good morning to you too, Robert,” he laughs through a yawn. He had never taken much seriously; that was for his older brothers, the political ones.

“Enough of that shite,” came the reply and Renly pushes himself up, propping himself against the metal bed frame. “The Daily Mail. Is it true?”

Renly frowns, pinching the bridge of his nose – since Robert’s rise to power, since he had taken his place at Number 10 Downing Street, he had been under much stress and this, thinks Renly, was the result. “What are you talking about, Robert? I’ve not seen the bloody papers…It’s barely gone seven.”

“The oil tycoon’s son. Are you fucking him?” The words are spoken through gritted teeth and the silence which follows is deafening. Renly is all too aware of his brother’s ragged breath on the other side of the phone and of the warm body which lays huddled under the covers to his left, his mouth suddenly dry at the thought of even trying to deny Loras. “Well?” He had never been ashamed of who he was before – Renly Baratheon, younger brother of Prime Minister Robert Baratheon and budding property developer – but suddenly he wasn’t so sure. He wants to tell his brother that it’s lies, another slanderous report by the stuffy Tory journalists but Loras gives a muffled moan in his sleep and the thought goes straight from his mind. “Renly?”

“Robert I swear - I never thought they’d find out. We were so discreet I…. How did they know?” He wants to reach out to Loras’ sleeping form, to shake him and rouse him from whatever pleasant dream he seems so lost in, but he knows its best to leave him, to allow him a little more time of blissful unawareness. He can hear the anger in Robert’s breath, the long and low rattle which comes before a sharp snap of teeth and knows the Tyrell family will be suffering similar reactions. He can’t expose Loras to that. Not yet. “Robert say something.”

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” each word is spat through the receiver and Renly knows the calm, respectable Prime Minister he’s seen in recent years is momentarily gone, only to be replaced by the brother he knew as a child, the one who would make him play in goals and kick the ball directly at his face just because he could. “As if I don’t have enough trouble with the bankers scandal – with Stannis, for Pete’s sake – but you choose now to go cavorting with some jumped up little cunt bringing even more attention on our already fucked up mess we call a family?”

A sleepy groan comes from Renly’s side as Loras turns to face him, his hand coming to rest on Renly’s lower stomach. “Time’s it?” the younger man asks groggily, his voice thick with sleep. Renly ignores him, ignores Robert and, for a minute, sits in silence. Loras’ fingers dance along his lower stomach asbent-mindedly, brushing the sparse hair below his navel. “Renly?”

“Is that little cunt there? Answer me, Renly – do you know what you’ve done? The damage you might have caused?”

His voice is timid and childlike when he responds, and he knows Loras’ eyes are on him now, full of concern. “I did nothing wrong…”

“Nothing wrong?” bellows Robert causing Loras to push himself into a seated position, looking scandalised at the voice booming from his boyfriend’s phone. “Nothing wrong? I thought you were smarter than that, Renly – the Church of England are up in arms over this Gay Marriage Law, Gay Rights Campaigners are practically banging down the door and today my brother comes out as a fucking poof.” He wants to argue, to tell Robert that it’s not his fault who he fell in love with, that it’s not a crime for a man to love another man but he knows that’s not the problem. If it were Stannis on the line he imagines that would be the exact conversation he would be having but it’s not; it’s Robert and this is about his position as Prime Minister. “How do you think the Church of England are going to respond to this one, eh?”

Before he can say any more, Loras reaches for the iPhone and ends the call silently, looking much younger than his twenty-three years, his light brown curls still flattened to one side of the pillow, his eyes still puffy from sleep. “Had to happen some day, I suppose…” he says, his hand moving to cup Renly’s chin, to turn his face towards him. “Are you okay?”

Renly shrugs, his shoulders barely moving. He knew it had to happen one day but he had hoped it would be a day of his choosing, when he could introduce Loras to his family, to Robert and Cersei – he knows their son Tommen and their daughter Myrcella would love Loras and that he would dote on them just the way Renly himself did… Joffrey would take some persuading but he was just like his grandfather Tywin; stubborn and cruel. Loras had told him once that it wasn’t right to hate a child but there was just something not right about his nephew… But none of that mattered now. He wouldn’t have the chance – Robert was so furious, so scared that someone would think him biased towards his unfortunate, homosexual brother’s plight that Renly dooubted he’d ever get to see Myrcella or Tommen again. “He doesn’t even care,” Renly thinks aloud as Loras leans in, pressing a light kiss to his shoulder. “I – We’ve just been outed… To our families, our friends… to all of Britain and all he can think of is how it’ll affect his position.” It’s a horrible realisation, that his brother would put his job before him but it’s not entirely a shock to the young man.

Loras laughs, “It could be worse – you could have gone mad and raped a banker’s daughter like the last Prime Minister’s son…” Renly looks horrified, shocked that his lover would even joke about such a thing. “I’m kidding. I’m kidding.” He presses another kiss to Renly’s exposed skin, just at the juncture between shoulder and neck. “We’ll be okay, you know…”

“Your father will not be okay with -”

“Fuck him. We’ll be okay. You and me. We always are…” says Loras, peppering Renly’s neck and jaw with kisses, his voice seeming more confident the closer his lips get to Renly’s. The phone which lays between them rings again and Renly’s fingers twitch to reach for it only to be stilled by Loras’ own. “Ignore it.” he says simply, as though ignoring it will make the problem go away and, perhaps, thinks Renly, it might. He allows Loras to push back the covers, to manoeuvre himself into his lap and to place a kiss to his lips. Usual arguments this would pose – about morning breath and lack of coffee – are forgotten about and even the Gay Rights Campaigners and the Church of England are forgotten about in that moment; it doesn’t matter about any one else for now, doesn’t matter about the Daily Mail or about Robert’s job. Only Loras matters and that, for Renly, is enough.


End file.
